Treehouse History
Built in 1931, the Treehouse has been expanded and modernized over the years. The original cabin (now the family room) has been kept in much of its original condition. This room served as the kitchen, eating and sleeping quarters. You can see the mail slot fitted in what was once the front door and a plugged hole where the stovepipe exited the cabin behind the large clock on the back wall. The redwood plank walls, oak floors, glass window panes and wooden doors are original. The fireplace and chimney are made from stones culled from Sinbad Creek in front of the cabin. A covered porch through double doors completed the cabin.
The Treehouse shows a pattern of expansion about every 20 years starting in the mid 40's. The covered porch was enclosed (now the office) and a separate kitchen, bathroom and bedroom (now the dining room) were added. In the late 60's, the cabin was expanded once again converting the bedroom into the dining room and the kitchen elongated pushing the bathroom and bedroom to the far end of the house. This expanded the basement and it was enclosed. This provided space for a garage (now the middle bedroom) and a workshop (now the third bedroom). In the 80's, the remaining basement space was finished and became the master bedroom.
In the late 90's, the garage and workshop were converted into bedrooms and a downstairs bathroom and wine cellar added. Due to the previous configuration and space restrictions, there are no hallways connecting the bedrooms. Instead, the bedrooms are connected in series. The former owner proceeded to upgrade many aspects of the property with modern, high quality touches, including the 600 bottle wine cellar, wine barrel hot tub, large gourmet kitchen with a Wolf gas range and state of the art bathroom with a luxury walk-in shower, heated towel racks and heated tile floors.
It is an interesting fact that regular running water was not available to residents of Kilkare Woods until 1986. Before the City of Pleasanton provided water for the locals, almost every home used a gravity-fed cistern that needed to be topped up every few days by a visiting water truck. Briefly, a crude community water system was constructed using water collected from Sinbad Creek. This proved to be troublesome and failed quite often.
Even though the cabin is quirky (electrical switches placed in odd places and the feel of the unlevel flooring due to settling), we have maintained the character, look and feel of the cabin as a cozy and comfortable solace reminiscent of another time period.